Cooking lots of things

 

omelet with bacon and spinach/whole wheat flour / egg mixture fried in the bacon grease

I had another half of the spinach mixture that I fried separately in butter and it turned out much more cohesive - pan difference, I think.  All of them tasted wonderful, but I also think I needed the nutrients and that is why I was drawn to cook it.  The cans of spinach had sat in the cupboard for nearly a year without me getting into them...

1/2 can of spinach (I put the other half in the fridge with the liquid in that)

1 large egg, beaten

I don't know - less than a 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour, it is supposed to be oats in the original recipe but I'm using what I have 

cook 1 slice of chopped bacon on low to medium until bits are crispy - keep all that oil  

cook 1 more egg as an omelet in a separate pan, in tandem that you can add the bacon in at the end (start bacon, gauge when is right, make omelet, add bacon keeping the oil in the other pan)

form large spoon fulls of the spinach mixture and place in the hot oil to cook, turn over, cook until well done.

but : I found that greasing the omelet pan with butter after the omelet was finished and then putting the other half of the spinach egg mixture in that in a layer made a much better finished product - so, have to try that again.  the bacon grease one was all fluffy and dry, but the butter one was a pancake like structure all smooth on both sides.

 

the lasagna without noodles

And today I am using the sweet potato tomato soup (below), the whole wheat pancake (also below) layered in a pan with this other half of the spinach omelet, mashed sweet potato layer and some mozzarella cheese to make a 'lasagna' - put in the toaster oven in a glass pan at 300 degrees.  1/2 pancake, 1/2 omelet laid on top of that, covered in mashed sweet potato, covered in mozarella cheese, other 1/2 of pancake, pour tomato sweet potato soup over it all to drench well and sit in bottom of pan - bake

 

sweet potato and tomato soup that I made yesterday and saved some of.  With the rest of the wheat flour/rice flour pancakes.

chunks of cooked sweet potato

half a can of 'chili fixings' tomato mixture - with onions, garlic and spices but no beans

a handful of onion

a handful of yellow squash, previously cut up and frozen

some 'orange beef stir-fry' seasoning packet that had orange peel and citrus in it and smelled very interesting - about a tablespoon of that

black pepper

water

cook until well-combined and bubbling, let cool just a bit, use the stick mixer to smooth into a consistency 

 

I have some whole wheat flour that is in the freezer, and some brown rice flour, and I've been using both of them up.  This is three eggs well beaten with whole wheat flour added to it, some brown rice flour (much less, just to smooth it out a little) some baking powder and salt, and a little garlic-parmesan grill mixture (I think it has some texturizer in it, because it does things to eggs when cooked with them.. and it tastes good).  Made three tamagoyaki pan sized pancakes with it.  Mark looked at the batter and said he didn't think that would cook up - but I buttered the tamagoyaki pan (a small Japanese omelet pan) and put it on as an even layer, turned it over when I saw bubbles and a nice edge around it, and it cooked up wonderfully.

was this a black plum or a nectarine?  they are related, so it is hard to tell.  It tasted like a VERY mild slightly harder nectarine.  Mark says it doesn't matter - I saw it, I took it home and ate it, so that is all that mattered.

 

 

Update on the teeth : Not where they should be yet, but I'm still wearing them every day and it only hurts a little now to put them in and take them out, but I don't want to wear them much longer than 14 hours or so because my lips and tongue just get irritated - but I missed my fitting appointment because of the holiday - the office cancelled and tried to move it up a few days earlier, but I got this sinus ick and just put it off now until after Thanksgiving.

 

Sinus ick : It's been annoying, especially in the morning after I wake up - but I'm getting throught it.  An allergy medication helped a lot for the first bit but now I'm letting it flow more to get rid of it.  I can smell everything even through it - which is a bit odd - it feels like my sense of smell is cranked UP with this even though it is making it hard to breathe through my nose.  I'm eating good foods and keeping down on the milk and sugar because I know those things make it worse.

 

Languages : studying French and Czech and a little Japanese here and there.  Reading more Japanese cooking things, and watching a lot of little French videos 

 

bits with vegetables, or fruits

 

 

 

 

We spent three hours at the DMV this morning, but now we have a permit holder and a renewed driver's license in the house.  We'd been trying to get those done for months.  We stopped and did the shopping on the way home and I got fruits/vegetables to prepare.  Ate half the avocado with lots of spice and bread, and then cut up the others to use in soups.

 

It is now 5:30 pm and it feels like night.  It is full dark out, as goes November.  I have already been giving in and going to sleep about 7:30 pm lately because of the temperature - and because I need the sleep.  The healing situation with my oral surgery has done quite well, except in that one place where I think the tooth shard might be.  My next check-up is next week.   Yesterday was the first day in all that time I hadn't taken any pain medication (ibuprofen) at all, although I still hissed like a cat when I took the teeth out at night.  That part still feels like pulling off skin each time - but it isn't, because when I rinse it out there isn't any blood or etc.  It's just that sensitive.  And I note that I'm still 'grinding my teeth' some in my sleep, but since there aren't teeth on the top, I woke myself up biting hard with a bottom tooth into the top gum in one place.

 

I dug a frozen chopped apple out of the fridge, and put it with some split peas, kielbasa, some of the yellow squash and onions in a pot to make soup this afternoon.  I still have some pumpkin, onion and chili-bean soup in the fridge from yesterday.  I can eat softened bread and cookies soaked in coffee with the dentures in, but nothing really hard, because of that spot with the potential tooth bit hurts a lot, then the plate slips.  I haven't lost a lot of weight, even though I've been eating less quantity - probably eating a bit more condensed calories in the soups?  Considering it's winter, that is good, as I really need what I've got to stay warm.  It's all doing fairly well, considering these little bits and my tendency towards inflammation with hEDS.  I didn't know how it was going to be at all in specific, which is why I am writing it down now as I go.

 

dental surgery soup recipes continue: 

 

1 small red delicious apple (I had cut up and put in a freezer container three months ago)

2 cups of water or more 

a half cup of green split peas, washed

a handful of onions

a few pieces of kielbasa

a bit of butter 

a handful of chopped yellow squash

spices 

 cooked until everything was soft and then pureed with a stick mixer.

 

 1/2 can of pumpkin puree

1/2 can of chili beans

handful or more of onions

bit of shredded pork (Mark was heating it up for him and Esme)

lots of spice

lots of hot madras curry powder (specifically)

some butter

2 cups of water

cooked until everything was soft and then pureed with a stick mixer.

 

Last night I dreamt that I had to leave my old mail truck on a long road by a little town - after working a full shift at the hardware store (where the computer system in the dream was absolutely not realistic and I found it eyebrow-raising) and driving out in a little dark blue car I don't have at all trying to go find my truck - and I knew where it was but it didn't make any sense, because it was a right-hand drive and it was parked on the right side of the road right up against a guardrail. I could see it in my mind's eye in the dream - and was driving along waiting to see it, knowing I'd have to turn around and come back and get it.  

 

I was supposed to go back and get in it and drive off, to avoid someone following me from the store.  But then when I got there - the plan was jacked and it was a trap - there were five trucks there and none of them were mine, all on the same basic model plan - red, gold or white, but all left- hand drives and none of them were even the same make - which I told the person in the dream that tried to catch my arm and ask which one was mine.  None of them, mine was a 'X'.  And I pulled away and ran further down the road towards the town, looking behind me all the way, although no one seemed to be following.  Then I walked a bit further into town and went to their post office, and asked them if they had seen a truck parked there.  The two ladies there told me my truck was out back, that the postmaster had had it reported to them and towed it there waiting for the owner to show up, but I didn't get that far to actually see it, as I couldn't find the actual door into the post office the door to the left said 'city hall' and the window said 'post office' and I was wondering if I would have to walk all the way around the building.  At that point, my alarm was going off.

 

 I've had a few of the 'remember this number/ address' type dreams, as well - but the info doesn't really mean anything when I wake up.  They told me it was my phone number, no it wasn't and I wouldn't actually say my number in the dream, although I wrote down the one they told me.  Addresses, same thing.  I run through routes and mail cases (in the post offices) in my dream that I haven't seen before - I can remember it when I wake up but can't remember the exact names and numbers, although they were all there when I was running them and trying to match up packages.  /sigh - like my brain thinks it doesn't have enough to do when I'm getting some sleep *ha

 

Studying Czech, French and Spanish.  Have laid the Japanese aside for a little bit, and haven't studied the Lithuanian vocabulary while I've been awake (although I played it in my sleep, too). 

bits

 We took hours insulating the washing machine wall the other day - but it got done.  Esme had to test a lot of her measuring and cutting skills - and we had to keep pressing through until every step was done the way Mark wanted it done.  I smashed one hand a little on something (still can't remember what) and cut myself with the utility knife, but only a little bit.  Mark always says if you don't bleed on a project (jokingly/sarcasm) it wasn't done right.  I was a bit hangry and really wanted to just be done with it - but he kept finding more details for us to do in each layer before proceeding.   I had come home from the postal route and was making soup in the other room in tandem.  It was good soup - turnip, with zucchini, onions and kielbasa.  I made some lentil with pork fat and red bell pepper today, but the turnip soup still won out as much better.  Mark was making a pork roast for him and Esme - I ate about a tablespoon of that with an avocado for dinner.  It is going to get below freezing tonight, and we've gotten the elderly mama cat in - she slept on my lap while we watched StarGate.  

 I haven't run the little car all week, but will have to see what happens tomorrow after work.  We have run the suv and it was doing well.  We did a major animal feed run in it and got the propane bottles refilled.   I am not going to try to take the little car to work tomorrow as I don't need the anxiety of not getting there in time.  That is a big reason we needed another car that was more reliable, but I can't just let the other one sit all the time either, as it needs to be run for it's battery etc.

 I've been trying to deal with the teeth all week and done a fairly good job.  I'm still grinding most things or making them into blended soup - and bread and cookies that have been soaked thoroughly in coffee.  I've mashed up bananas and peaches.  I've still worn the teeth every single day, and I'm down to just a few painkillers a day (ibuprofen), mostly before I put them in the morning and just before I take them out at night.  I'm fearing there might be a tooth shard in that one place that still hurts so much. Once in a while when the plate slips a little trying to bite something, I can feel a hard bit slide on the plate there - and it would be pretty severe if that was my jaw bone doing that in just that one place - but a bit of tooth shard makes a lot of sense.  That would explain things, including a slight swelling just above it that has not went down.  

Why am I not running into the dentist and asking them to x-ray now that I've thought of that?  Because me and my stupid pain tolerance - it isn't quite so bad that I know something is wrong, but it's annoying.  And to me, what is annoying, is probably their 'what can you give me to get it to go away'... like Spock raising an eyebrow in mild annoyance at somebody rushing him with a sword.  I spent an entire summer with a fracture from falling out of a treehouse, because my mom didn't think it could possibly actually be an injury, because I only cried a little right afterward.  At the ER after another injury, the nurse wasn't sure I could possibly be injured because I was laughing uncontrollably - then she saw the x-ray - that one required a splint.  I held a gushing wound closed on a finger cut down to the bone from my house all the way to the clinic and the doctor there could not believe what he saw when I finally took my hand off it - 'have you been holding that shut the entire time since it happened?' Of course I have.  Why wouldn't you?  Then he gave me ten stitches with lots of superglue over them and a splint on that so I wouldn't move it while it healed.  There is still a long white scar on that finger that if someone looks closely at they stop and ask 'what the hell happened there'.  I have another check-up for the dental in a few weeks, but I will keep in mind that there might be something there that needs to be looked at.

My nose DID stop hurting, finally - after being an added torment to the other mouth pain for almost all of the past two weeks.  I can now do the 'bunny rabbit nose' thing without a shooting pain, and the mobility of my upper lip has also returned, which you don't really realize how much that is used in talking, drinking and eating until you have about half-capacity in it (or none) and that still hurts when I move it a lot, but mostly around that spot I think the tooth shard might be under the plate.

 Most of the rest is going well.  I spent several hours today reading a silly book.

When I brought the turnip in from the store, Esme and Mark looked at it and asked 'what IS it?'  I was surprised - the lady at the store was young, and she knew what it was.  I said: 'C'mon people, it has purple on it, it's a turnip!'  Mark said 'Those don't turnip around here often'  *groan*  I had to try to tell Esme as much as I know about the differences between turnips, rutabagas, and everything else.  Info-dumped on her and I know she understands that is just how mom is *ha*  I cut it open and had her smell it, too, as she likes the smell of onions.  I told her I couldn't explain it but that, to me, it smelled something between an apple, an onion and maybe a radish.  The soup turned out excellent, but I couldn't convince her to try it.  Especially not when Mark had pizza to offer.  It will be a good while before I can eat pizza, or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without a knife and a fork (but I did do that today, and did succeed).

The turnip soup:

1 turnip, about 1.2 lbs. according to the grocery receipt, washed, peeled and diced

in enough water to cover in a big pot

added a tablespoon or so of olive oil

salt, black pepper, rosemary garlic seasoning

let that boil on medium for at least an hour

added some zucchini, onions and kielbasa from the freezer

let that boil a bit longer, maybe another forty minutes

removed from heat, then blended smooth

poured up in a clean glass jar

 

It is sweeter than potato soup, and has less of that 'mealy grainy' taste that potato soup sometimes has.

 I've been studying mostly Czech, Welsh and Spanish the past few days.  The Czech is in review mode, the Spanish is normal and the Welsh is in super-hard 'Am I going to use this vocabulary? mode'.  I haven't done too much with the to do list, but I did remember to do a few of the things that I had on it, like take the garbage up, and do some laundry things.

 

bits

 bits, without the caps lock on...  still making soup and trying to get things done.  I had my check up appointment for the denture plate and they adjusted it a little - said I'm doing good to have worn them every single day, despite the pain.  

Studying Romanian, Lithuanian, Japanese and did a Spanish lesson today as that was on my to do list for Wednesdays.  I need to water the plants upstairs - as I didn't do it this week at all, so far.  We also need to get animal feeds and propane one day soon.  We will have a bit of a warm spell this week and then on Sunday it will drop to below freezing - so I have to get that washing machine pipe insulated, as well.  We normally turn the valves off when it gets that cold - but that was when they were still insulated in the wall, and during the break and repair, we pulled out all the insulation that had gotten wet.

 So, drab things but they need to be done.

 Today was an absolute mile-a-minute at work - and I could have used to have been twins, since they wanted me in the office to be present during interviews and also I needed to be on the warehouse floor readying orders - so I had to switch off as much as possible to get it all done.

Esme had a good birthday yesterday - I promised not to embarrass her or take pictures -  she had chosen a big kangaroo-pocket hoodie and asked for some game credits.  I found a Minecraft toy she had picked up at the store one time we were shopping and bought one to bring home - it is a fluffy bee, and almost a ball.  I brought her some of the cakes she likes and ice cream.  I also had gotten her an investment bond earlier last month that I had put money away for slowly - not at all big, but as an 18th-birthday something that will be for the future gift, besides the common items.  We can't 'give' her a car, as she can't drive yet!

 

My dinner: I still can't eat hard things or things that require too much 'motion' - because the jaw and gums are still healing underneath this hard plastic plate.  If I soak bread in soup or a cookie in coffee in small pieces I can eat it on the back side of a bottom tooth and the plate without 'rocking' the plate painfully, most of the time.  I am also smashing up bananas, canned peaches and mandarin oranges for fruit and fiber.

Soup :

1/2 can of pureed great northern beans with the aqua faba

 zucchini, red bell pepper

a few chunks of sweet potato

water

olive oil

spicy italian seasoning

 

served with bread, and a rice flour omelet

1 egg beaten, 1 tsp of sugar, 1/4 cup or so of rice flour (brown rice flour in this case), salt, bit of baking powder, some spice mixture, fry in butter in tamagaoyaki pan and serve with a big spoon of peanut butter 

 Mark made pork chop and garlic bread and some of the same sweet potato for him and Esme.  I really am not going to chance the pork chop - tried just a little bit of well cut up hamburger the other night and it was sticking in my throat so I gave it up.   

 Every night I am making about a 3/4 cup of whole milk with strong madras curry powder in it, heated up until it all combines well.  And I am drinking that as the last thing before bed.

The 'beaver moon' was out this morning - and it was large like a coin on the horizon, just a few inches above a field on my turn out towards work - with a little strip of cloud right across the middle of it, so it seemed like Saturn, or a closed eyelid.  It is still large in the sky tonight but it is already waning gibbous. 

 

more bits

 Did the postal route today, missed the rain.  It has turned quite cold out.  The teeth still hurt to put in and to take out - and my health checkup to see where they are rubbing or cutting is on Tuesday.   I'm still taking the ibuprofen and the antibiotics.

 

We shopped yesterday and I got several more zucchinis and a red pepper - made this soup:

 

some water, less than 2 cups 

1 tbsp of olive oil 

1 smaller potato left from last bag

big handful of fresh cut zucchini

small handful of the chopped red pepper

frozen chopped onions

part of the black bean puree I still had from the other soups

the last 1/3 of the small container of tomato paste

black pepper, garlic Parmesan seasoning and paprika

 That had to boil a very long time because of the potato 

used the stick blender to grind it up

have made three bowls of soup out of it and used it as a spread over an omelet as well

 

I have a lot more of the zucchini, onions and peppers in the freezer to make more soups, and bought two more cans of the beans and chickpeas that I have been using.  Mark and Esme ate baked potato and pork chop but I really can't eat the meat yet unless I cut it up miniscule - the egg omelet was good for that for me. 

Headed for bed - I took the teeth out at 6 or 7 pm last night after a very hard day and quite a bit of 'bite' in one place that I wanted relief from.  Putting them in HURT, but I put face wash all over my face and let them settle in while I focused on washing my face - and by that point, it was almost bearable.  I took them out a bit after 8 tonight, and have to get back up at 11:30 to take the antibiotic.  The goal is to keep them in until 10 or 10:30 but right now I can't sleep through the night, either.

 

 

bits

thoughts : I'm very grateful to have the new teeth - I've worked hard over the past six months to go through all the stages required to get to this point, because with hEDS I do not heal well and have had to go slower than most people do.  They do look good when I have them in and function, although I have to relearn how to talk properly as well.  But that doesn't discount that they hurt like * to get used to and I'm going to have to use a lot of ibuprofen and willpower to get through these first few weeks. I have a fairly high pain tolerance all told, so I'm letting myself be honest that yes, this hurts.  This hurts a lot in ways I wasn't quite expecting.  My nose still hurts and taking the teeth out and putting them back in both hurt like fire for a few minutes, and then I can tolerate it.  Warm liquids, especially coffee brewed with ginger licorice tea in it, help a lot.  I am used to taking one or two ibuprofen a day when I'm actually hurting with other hEDS stuff (knees, etc.) - and now I am taking one or two every four to six hours.  I can't have any other type of painkiller, or more accurately, I can't chemically process any other type of painkiller so it doesn't make sense to take any other kind.  

I'm also on an antibiotic the dentist gave me, but I waited a day or so to start it - and I probably shouldn't have.  One of the dentists (two worked on me) told me to hold off since I had two rounds of the same antibiotic in two other months - and I can see some in that advice but the day before last I woke up after sleeping a few hours feeling like a dog that ate a wasp - the whole front of my face hurt - and I made some soup and started with the antibiotics.

 

I'm also so glad I can cook and adapt recipes to still get the food that I need to eat in a form I can eat it //as I make black bean soup with zucchini, onions, tomato paste and every spice my instincts tell me to eat.  And right now - my instincts are telling me to eat anti-inflammatories and anthrocyanins.  I can do that - my food chopper and stick blender are helping a lot with that - good thing I was sort of doing those things with my bad teeth before - but whoa, having 'bad' teeth was still better than having raw holes where teeth used to be, that you then stick a hard unforgiving and rubbing plastic plate over for 12 to 16 hours every day before the holes have even healed up (part of the process).  

My mother went through this 20 years ago and she stopped wearing her teeth - and I knew it was hard, and she wasn't good with pain, but it severely impacted her health not being able to eat (and she wouldn't eat as many vegetables or spices as I do, plus had diabetes).  She didn't get the nutrition she needed and got much sicker because of it.  So I'm really using my willpower.  This morning getting out of bed on time was a bit tougher (I'm still working full time plus) - and knowing I would be putting those teeth in, with all the pain that makes my eyes water, and I did it anyway.  Taking them out tonight hurt just about as much as getting them to settle in this morning... and having the warm spiced liquid available to wash over them helped so much.

 

tonight's 'let's eat some good protein and fiber' soup mix: this one has the added benefit of having anthrocyanins in the black beans, which helps against inflammation and with pain relief (and actually does work like that for me)

 

1 can of black beans with aqua fava, ground in a processor

1/3 of a small can of tomato paste

1 tbsp of butter

some water 

1 large handful of frozen zucchini

1 handful of frozen onions

black pepper, brown mustard seed, some 'sicilian' seasoning, some 'al pastor' taco seasoning, some 'chinese five spice' seasoning, paprika, garlic, cocoa powder - the al pastor seasoning had guajilio chile powder in it, which I also use for the anthrocyanins, and the Sicilian seasoning was mostly tomato and garlic but it was running too low.  The five spice powder had cloves and cinnamon in it.

heat that all up to boiling, then cool it down some and run my stick blender through it until all the zucchini and onions are blended

eat with a frozen biscuit 

 

the other day:

1/2 can of tuscan flavored chickpeas (some name brand mix)

1/3 of a small can of tomato paste

some water 

1 tbsp of butter

1/2 of a large cube of chicken bouillon  

1 handful of frozen zucchini

1 handful of frozen orange bell pepper 

1 handful of frozen onions

I think I put only some black pepper in that one - because the tuscan flavored chickpeas were actually well spiced 

 

Languages: I'm actually catching up on Romanian, and haven't even done any French or Japanese this week at all - what is that about? I can't spell very well in Romanian at all... and moreso when I've been lax on keeping up with it.  So, I'm doing fairly well considering that.  I have let my to do list go to the wind until I get myself back together.  I need to take Esme out and let her pick out another birthday present one of these nights after work, she mentioned a coat and she needs to try them on.